2020 Super Formula Championship

The 2020 Japanese Super Formula Championship is the 34th season of premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing, and the eight under the moniker of Super Formula.

2020 Super Formula Championship
Previous: 2019 Next: 2021
Support series:
TCR Japan Touring Car Series
Super Formula Lights

Teams and drivers
Team No. Driver Engine
Vantelin Team TOM'S[1] 1 Nick Cassidy[2] Toyota
36 Kazuki Nakajima[1]
TBA[3]
Kondō Racing[4] 3 Kenta Yamashita[1]
TBA[3]
4 Sacha Fenestraz[1]
carrozzeria Team KCMG[4] 7 Kamui Kobayashi[1]
TBA[3]
18 Yuji Kunimoto[1]
ROOKIE Racing[5] 14 Kazuya Oshima[5]
Itochu Enex Team Impul[1] 19 Yuhi Sekiguchi[1]
20 Ryō Hirakawa[1]
JMS P.mu/cerumo・INGING[1][4][6] 38 Hiroaki Ishiura[1]
39 Sho Tsuboi[1]
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing 5 Naoki Yamamoto[7] Honda
6 Nirei Fukuzumi[7]
Drago Corse with ThreeBond[8] 12 Tatiana Calderón[7]
TBA[3]
Team Mugen 15 Jüri Vips[7]
TBA[3]
16 Tomoki Nojiri[7]
B-MAX Racing with Motopark 50 Sérgio Sette Câmara[9]
TBA[3]
51 Charles Milesi[7]
TBA[3]
TCS Nakajima Racing 64 Tadasuke Makino[7]
65 Toshiki Oyu[7]

Team changes
  • Ryo Michigami's Drago Corse returns to the championship in partnership with ThreeBond. This marks the teams first appearance in the championship since 2016.
  • Team LeMans left the championship at the end of 2019. This means that 2020 was the first season since 1988 where Team LeMans was not represented. Their place was filled by KCMG and Cerumo Motorsport which both added one car each. Cerumo's third car was entered as Rookie Racing.
  • Real Racing announced it has withdrawn from the 2020 season.[10]

Driver changes

Toyota

Honda
  • Tatiana Calderón moves to the revived Drago Corse team from the FIA Formula 2 Championship, becoming the first female driver in the current Super Formula era and the first in top level Japanese open-wheel racing since Ireland's Sarah Kavanagh entered two races in the 1997 Formula Nippon Championship.
  • Jüri Vips will contest the full season with Team Mugen, having joined the team at the final round of the 2019 Championship as a replacement for Patricio O'Ward. O'Ward will return to the IndyCar Series in 2020, driving for Arrow McLaren SP.
  • Pietro Fittipaldi was initially confirmed in the #50 B-MAX entry.[11] Fittipaldi had previously competed in the first round of the 2018 Championship before an injury prevented his return. However, on the eve of a pre-season test at Fuji Speedway, it was announced that Sérgio Sette Câmara would instead occupy the seat, in what was described as a "late reshuffle of race seats due to conflicting sponsors' interests".[9] Sette Câmara will be joined by Charles Milesi, who moves up from the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. B-Max's 2019 drivers Lucas Auer and Harrison Newey left the series, both moving to the DTM with BMW and Audi respectively.[12][13]
  • Alex Palou left Nakajima Racing to move to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing. He was replaced by Japanese F3 race winner Toshiki Oyu.

Race calendar

The provisional calendar with seven rounds was announced in July 2019.[14] However, in September 2019 the calendar was updated to have the Suzuka Circuit as the first round rather than the Fuji Speedway.[15] The final round at Suzuka Circuit was pushed back 2 weeks to avoid a schedule conflict with the FIA World Endurance Championship, which competes at Fuji Speedway on 1 November.[16] After multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a revised calendar was announced on 9 June 2020 that now sees the season starting in August and running until December.[17]

Round Circuit Date
1 Twin Ring Motegi 30 August
2 Okayama International Circuit 27 September
3 Sportsland SUGO 18 October
4 Autopolis 15 November
5 Suzuka Circuit 5 December
6 6 December
7 Fuji Speedway 20 December
  • On 2 March 2020, the season opener at Suzuka Circuit was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.[18] On 7 April 2020, it was announced that the season finale would become a double-header, effectively reestablishing the second round at Suzuka.[19]
  • The rounds at Fuji Speedway and Autopolis were postponed on 18 March 2020 and 31 March 2020 respectively, both also because of the virus.[20][21]
  • On 24 April 2020, the former fourth round at Sportsland SUGO was also postponed to a so far unannounced date because of the ongoing pandemic.[22]


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References
  1. "Cassidy absent from Toyota's Super Formula line-up". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  2. "Cassidy agrees fresh TOM'S Super Formula deal". Motorsport Network. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  3. "Seven Super Formula drivers could miss Motegi opener". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  4. Klein, Jamie (November 21, 2019). "Fenestraz set to replace Nakajima at TOM'S". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  5. "Toyota SF Driver Announced ❗️". Super Formula Twitter Account. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  6. Klein, Jamie (December 18, 2019). "Cerumo/Inging adds cars in Super GT, Super Formula". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  7. "Calderon becomes first female Super Formula driver". 10 January 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  8. "Michigami's Drago Corse squad returns to Super Formula grid". motorsport.com. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  9. "Sette Camara makes surprise Super Formula switch". www.motorsport.co. 23 March 2020.
  10. "Real Racing withdraws from 2020 Super Formula season". Motorsport Network. 27 February 2020.
  11. "Fittipaldi back to Super Formula with BMAX/Motopark". Motorsport Network. 12 December 2019.
  12. "Auer secures 2020 BMW drive for DTM return". Motorsport Network. 18 December 2019.
  13. "Newey secures WRT Audi DTM drive as Jones drops out". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  14. "Super Formula unveils provisional 2020 calendar". motorsport.com. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  15. "Suzuka reinstated as Super Formula season opener". motorsport.com. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  16. "Super Formula changes date to avoid WEC clash". motorsport.com. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  17. Wood, Elliot (2020-06-09). "New Super Formula calendar reveals December end date". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  18. "Coronavirus forces Super Formula to postpone opener". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  19. Wood, Elliot (2020-04-07). "Super Formula's Suzuka season finale becomes double header". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
  20. "Super Formula also postpones Fuji race over coronavirus". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  21. Wood, Elliot (2020-03-31). "Super Formula season delayed further as Autopolis postponed". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  22. Wood, Elliot (2020-04-24). "Super Formula postpones Sportsland SUGO race". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
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